The
Produce Marketing Association Australia-New Zealand (PMA
A-NZ) is pleased to announce that Richard Bennett has been
recognised at the 2014 HACCP Awards in Sydney on 27th August
2014, receiving the Ross Peters Memorial Award for
Excellence in Food Safety.

Bennett was recognised for his
work over the last two decades in championing the improved
understanding and adoption of food safety and quality
management in the fresh produce sector.

He is commended
for his guidance, research management, resource design, and
communication.

In receiving the Award, Richard Bennett
said, “It’s a tremendous honour to be recognised by my
peers in such a significant award category. The fresh
produce industry’s safety journey has been a long one with
many difficult challenges along the way. At each stage I did
all I could to lead, facilitate and inspire those I worked
with. In turn, their work inspired me.”

Michael
Worthington, CEO of PMA A-NZ says the award is
well-deserved:

“Richard is an extremely worthy recipient
of this award; he has worked tirelessly over 20 years to
champion food safety in the fresh produce sector and it is
fantastic that he has been recognised for this," he
said.

"Australasia has built a globally-recognised
reputation for producing safe, high quality fresh produce
and it is largely due to diligent producers working in
concert with experts like Richard. Not only having him as
part of our team but Richard’s ongoing involvement in the
recently-established Fresh Produce Safety Centre will ensure
that our region proactively maintains this reputation,"
Worthington added.

Bennett is currently the Technology
Manager at PMA A-NZ, where his role covers all areas of food
safety, traceability and technology. He is also a regular
food safety contributor on the PMA A-NZ blog at
www.pma-anz.com/blog. In addition, he works closely with
the University of Sydney's Faculty of Agriculture and
Environment, and industry stakeholders at the Fresh Produce
Safety Centre for Australia and New Zealand.

Previously,
Bennett was the Product Integrity Manager for HAL, a role
which revolved around protecting consumer and supply chain
confidence in the integrity of fresh and processed
horticultural food products.

He also managed a portfolio of product
integrity research and development projects from initial
assessment through to contracting, milestone reporting and
final reporting.

Bennett has had a full career working in
numerous aspects of horticulture including in the nursery,
seed and fruit processing industries, as an industry
development officer, trainer, agronomist and executive
officer for a number of fruit grower associations, and
providing technical support to the marketing team at the
Australian Horticultural Corporation.

He has
qualifications in orchard management, applied science,
agribusiness and food safety.

The Ross Peters Memorial
Award is awarded each year in acknowledgement of significant
contributions made to food safety in Australia or New
Zealand, and passion and commitment to driving food safety
impact.

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